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Rhode Island Day 



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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 



OCTOBER THE FIFTH 



EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-THREE 



EDITED BY 



/ 




ALONZO WILLIAMnS 






E. L. FREEMAN & SON, PRINTERS. 






RHODE ISLAND'S GIFT 



Last of the thirteen, smallest of them all, 
What canst thou bring to this World's Festival, 
Where all thy sisters come with pride and power, 
And bring each one a Princess' generous dower 
Of gold and gems, and fruits, and precious woods, 
And joyous tribute of their costly goods ? 
What can we bring ? No outward show of gain. 
No pomp of state ; we bring the sons of men 1 

Bring gold, fair sisters, yellow gold, 

And gems, and all that's fair and fine. 
And heap them all, the new, the old. 

Before our country's stately shrine. 
Bring hardihood from north and east. 

Bring beauty from the south and west, -^ 
Bring valor to adorn the feast. 

Bring all that has withstood time's test. 
We grudge you not the riches rare. 

We grudge you not your acres broad. 
We bring you for our noble share 

THE LIBERTY TO WORSHIP GOD. 

Caroline Hazard. 



CONTENTS 



I. General Introduction, 7 

Committee on Ceremonies, 7 

March to the Fair Grounds, 9 

Luncheon at the New York Building, - - 12 

II. The March to Music Hall, ------- 13 

The Order of Formation, 13 

"Old Glory," Burnside's Headquarters Flag, 15 

Col. William A. James, - 16 

The Procession on the Lake Front, - - - 17 

III. Exercises at Music Hall, 18 

The Distinguished Gathering, 18 

Arrival of President Palmer and the National 

Commissioners, 21 

Programme of Literary Exercises, 23 

Address, E. Benjamin Andrews, President, - 23 

Address, His Excellency, D. Russell Brown, 28 

Oration, Professor Alonzo Williams, - - - 35 

Poem, Caroline Hazard, '---58 

Address, Col. William A. James, - - - - 61 

Poem, Henry R. Palmer, 65 

Address, John C. Wyraan, Executive Commis- 
sioner, - 68 

Address, Hon. Thomas W. Palmer, President 

National Commission, ^ 74 

IV. Dress Parade, - - 77 

V. . Evening Reception, - - 79 



I. GENERAL INTRODUCTION 



The exercises of Rhode Island Day at the World's 
Columbian Exposition, October 5; 1893, were under 
the guidance of the Committee on Ceremonies, ap- 
pointed by the Board of World's Fair Managers of 
Rhode Island. This committee consisted of: 

Hon. John P. Sanbokn, Chairman, 
Arthur H. Watson, Lorillard Spencer, 

Lyman B. Goff, Gardiner C. Sims. 

The arrangements for the day had been made 
with care and foresight, and every contingency so 
clearly anticipated that success but waited to crown 
the efforts of the committee. 

The day broke clear and beautiful. ' All the ele- 
ments seemed to conspire in favor of the occasion, 
awaited with such impatience by every loyal son 
and daughter of Rhode Island. Not a cloud ob- 
scured the heavens. The sun put on his brightest 
robes. The very breezes from the lake tempered 



8 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

the biting chill of yesterday and brought only 
draughts of inspiration. Good nature, enthusiasm, 
patriotism, ruled the assembled hosts, and every- 
one seemed satisfied with himself, his neighbors 
and the world. No such day had smiled upon any 
State occasion thus far since the Great Fair com- 
menced. Nor had any State Day been honored by 
such a gathering of the tribes as came up to the 
great festival. One hundred and seventy-nine 
thousand, nine hundred and sixty-five was the 
number of paid admissions to Jackson Park, a 
number unequalled on any previous State Day. 
Glowing and complimentary editorials in all the 
leading daily papers of Chicago had heralded the 
event, and not only the people of that great city, 
but the thousands from the East and West, from 
the North and South, were out to greet the smallest 
gem in the constellation of sister States that make 
up the Great Republic. All were arrayed in holi- 
day attire, men and women, old and young, all in 
harmony with the glad occasion, prepared to hail 
and applaud and honor "Little Rhody," as they 
delighted to call her. 

Early the members of the Governor's personal 
and general staff, and the ladies and gentlemen of 
the official party, began to assemble at the Hotel 
Auditorium, the Governor's headquarters ; and at 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION 9 

11:30 A. M. the line of carriages, containing Gov. 
Brown and party, and the Commissioners for Rhode 
Island, was drawn np on Michigan avenue in front of 
the hotel and proceeded immediately over the grand 
boulevards to the Fair Grounds. At the Fifty- 
Seventh street entrance to the Park the Newport 
Artillery was found drawn, up in line, awaiting the 
arrival of the Governor, whom they received with 
fitting military honors, and then promptly wheeled 
into platoons, ready to escort the Governor through 
the Park to the Rhode Island building. It seemed 
very appropriate and fitting that this ancient and 
honorable company, now the oldest active military 
organization in the United States, — a company char- 
tered in 1741 by King George the Second, — a com- 
pany born of the troublous times inaugurated by 
the declaration of war between England and Spain 
in 1739 and continued by the war between England 
and France in 1744, — a company that has partici- 
-pated in every war and been present at every siege 
from that of Fort William Henry in 1757 to that of 
Petersburg in 1865, — a company that -furnished its 
quota of men in the French and Indian War, and 
more than One Thousand during the Civil War, — a 
company that served as escort to Governor Arthur 
Fenner and the General Assembly on Inauguration 
Day in 1793, and has performed the same service 



10 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

annually even to the present day, — it seemed spe- 
cially fitting that this venerable company should 
have the honor of acting as escort to Governor Brown 
upon a State occasion of such historic importance. 
The company seemed mindful of its ancient virtue, 
and every officer and man inspired by the memories 
of a glorious past. The neat dress uniforms and 
helmets, the bright scarlet trappings, the soldierly 
bearing and the marching of the men won the ad- 
miration of the crowds that lined the way, and 
called forth encomiums from the regular army offi- 
cers present. 

Under the inspiring music of the Newport Band 
the line moved past the State Buildings of South 
Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Louisiana, Missouri, 
Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts to the 
Rhode Island State Building. All the State flags 
were flying and the buildings were decorated in 
honor of " Little Rhody," and it seemed as though 
the big States could not show aff'ection enough for. 
their little pet sister. Pennsylvania covered herself 
all over with gay colors and bunting of red and 
white and blue, and as if to bestow her highest favor, 
she tolled the old Liberty Bell as Governor Brown 
passed her house, while at the same time there 
came floating on the quiet noon air the sounds of 
the Peace Bell, located in the Administration Plaza. 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION 11 

When the party arrived at the Rhode Island 
Building, Hon. John P. Sanborn, Chairman of the 
Committee on Ceremonies, welcomed Governor 
Brown and made a formal presentation of the 
structure to the Governor, who in a brief and fit- 
ting speech accepted the building in behalf of the 
State. Here had already, gathered many hundred 
guests from Rhode Island, ladies and gentlemen, 
and scores of happy children added their joy to the 
occasion, and the snug little building, nestling 
under the right wing of the spacious Hancock 
House, had on her brightest garments, and festoons 
of red, white and blue lent gaiety and picturesque- 
ness to the severer lines of her classical architecture. 
From the staff above the building floated, more 
proudly than its wont, the emblem of the State, 
and within was unfurled for the first time at the 
Fair the old flag carried by Gen. Nathanael Greene's 
command during the Revolutionary War. The 
crowd that thronged the building and decked the 
lawn adorned itself with a badge of ^ light blue, 
distributed by the genial Col. Wyman, to distin- 
guish the true sons and daughters -of Rhode Island 
from the great outside throng which surged past or 
stopped a moment to gaze and wonder, and to in- 
quire whether perchance anybody had been left to 
guard the State at home. 



12 KHODE ISLAND DAY 

While the line was at rest, the Rhode Island 
Board of World's Fair Managers tendered a com- 
plimentary luncheon to Governor Brown and staff 
and other invited guests. The New York State 
Commissioners performed a most graceful act of 
courtesy in tendering for this purpose the use of 
the spacious banquet hall in the New York build- 
ing, opposite. Seventy-five covers were laid and 
the luncheon was an elaborate one, and its enjoy- 
ment enhanced by the very gracious speech of 
welcome from the New York Commissioner, Hon. 
Louis M. Howland. 



II. The March to Music Hall 



At 2 o'clock the line was formed which was to 
escort Governor Brown to Music Hall, where the 
exercises of the afternoon were to take place. 

THE ORDER OF FORMATION : 

Platoon of Columbian Guards, 50 men in gray uniform. 

In carriages : 

E. Benjamin Andrews, D.D,, LL.D., President of the Board 

of World's Fair Managers. 

COMMITTEE ON CEREMONIES : 

John P. Sanborn, Chairman, Arthur H. Watson, 

Lyman B. Goff, Lorillard Spencer. 

RHODE ISLAND COMMISSIONERS : 

Hiram Howard, Daniel B. Pond, 

Richard Thornley. 

EXECUTIVE COMMISSIONER : 

John C. Wyman. 

Newport Band, 28 pieces, Thos. W. Henry, Leader. 

Company Buglers. 

Lieut.-Col. Alvin A. Barker, Commanding. 

H. C. Stevens, Jr., Adjutant. 

Commissioned Staff. 



14 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

" Old Glory," Gen. Barnside's Headquarters' Flag, 

Sergeant Tlios. H. Lawton, Bearer. 

Newport Artillery, 11 officers and 72 men. 

Co. A, Major Geo. C. Shaw. 

Company Colors. 

Co. C, Lieut. John D. Richardson. 

Co. B, Capt. Herbert Bliss. 

Non-Commissioned Staff. 

In Carriages : 

State Colors. 

His Excellenc}^, D. Russell Brown, Governor. 

Lieut.-Gov. Melville Bull. 

Hon. J. W. Horton, Ex-Mayor of Newport. 

GENERAL AND PERSONAL STAFF : 

Gen. Charles R. Dennis, Gen. John C. Budlong, 

Gen. Charles A. Wilson, Col. Hunter C. White, 

Col. H. Martin Brown, Col. Raymond G. Mowry, 

Col. William B. Waterman, Col. John H. Wetherell, 

Col. Walter H. Stearns, Col. Frank Harris, 

Lieut.-Col. W. Howard Walker, Lieut.-CoL Geo. H. Kenyon, 
Lieut.-Col. Walter R. Stiness, Capt. Thompson, U. S. A., 
Lieut. Frederick Wooley, U. S. A. 
Carriage containing 
Professor Alonzo Williams, the Orator of the Day. 
Henry R. Palmer, the Poet of the Day. 
Col. William A. James, President of Society of Sons and 
Daughters of Rhode Island. 
Richard W. Jennings, Executive Secretary. 
Carriages containing among others : 
Miss Charlotte F. Daily, Secretary and Treasurer of the 
Board of World's'Fair Managers. 



THE MARCH TO MUSIC HALL 15 

Mrs. George A. Mumford, Mrs. Amey M. Starkweather, 
Miss Loraine P. Biicklin, of the Government Commissioners, 

Mrs. D. Russell Brown, Miss Hope C. Brown, 

Mrs. H. Martin Brown, Miss Isabel R. Brown, 

Mrs. John P. Sanborn, Miss Jennie Eddy, 

Miss Florence Sanborn, Mrs. Frank Harris, 

Mrs. Alvin A. Barker, Mrs. Francis P. Kendall, 

Miss Maud Pond, ^ Miss Nannie Pond, 

Mrs. C. M. Bull, Miss Jane W. Kendall, 

Mrs. Arthur H. Watson, Mrs. Walter R. Stiness, 

Gen. Hiram Kendall, ' Mrs. John H. Wetherell, 

Mrs. Hiram Kendall, Miss Addie S. Warfield, 

Col. A. C. Landers, Mrs. A. C. Landers, 
Lieut. -Col. Arthur V. Warfield. 

There were in all twenty-five or thirty carriages, 
containing about one hundred distinguished ladies 
and gentlemen from Rhode Island, and behind 
these marched nearly a thousand loyal sons and 
daughters, all forming a most gratifying and im- 
posing pageant. One of the most attractive feat- 
ures of the procession was the headquarters' flag, 
" Old Glory," used by Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside 
during the Civil War, now a trophy of the War 
Department, but loaned for the d^iy by Capt. John 
F. Rogers, a foriner Rhode Islander and nephew 
of Commodore Oliver Hazard Pferry, who now 
has charge of the Quartermaster's section in the 
War Department exhibit. The flag was escorted 



16 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

to the Rhode Island building in charge of a guard 
of regulars and turned over to Executive Com- 
missioner John C. Wyman, and by him entrusted 
to Lieut.-Col. Alvin A. Barker, who detailed Ord- 
nance Sergeant Thomas H. Lawton, a veteran of 
the Civil War, to be its bearer and special guardian. 
Thus are even the mute participants of that great 
struggle cared for and honored. More than one 
maimed hero of the Ninth Corps lifted his hat as 
'' Old Glory " passed that day, and as memory ran 
back up the checkered years something moist stole 
down the bronzed and furrowed cheek. The com- 
piler of this record cannot forbear to mention in 
this connection, that beside him in the carriage 
rode in that triumphal procession a brave son of 
Rhode Island, who served her well when brave sons 
were of more worth than gold, Col. William A. 
James, of the Third Rhode Island Cavalr}?^, who 
spoke so eloquently that day in behalf of the "Sons 
and Daughters of Rhode Island," of whose society 
in Chicago he was the president. Col. James that 
day was at the very summit of a well-developed 
manhood, the envy of many who looked upon him. 
Since then he has been suddenly stricken down and. 
his many friends left to mourn, and to marvel at 
the mysterious ways of destiny. 

The procession wound past the State Buildings 



THE MARCH TO MUSIC HALL 17 

of New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, 
and uncoiled its length upon the Lake Front, pas- 
sing in succession the stately structures of France, 
Germany, Spain and Canada, leaving the battleship 
" Illinois " on the left and the Government Build- 
ing and the Manufacturers Building on the right, 
until after a march of one and a half miles it en- 
tered the Court of Honor and reached Music Hall, 
which forms the northern , end of the Peristyle. 
The great white palaces of Jackson Park never 
looked more imposing and beautiful than under 
the bright rays of that Indian Summer sun, which 
shone in all its splendor from a cloudless sky, and 
the Park itself was radiant in blue and scarlet and 
gold. Immense crowds lined the way from the 
beginning to the end of the march, and it has been 
estimated that fifty thousand spectators greeted 
" Little Rhody " and her Governor as they passed. 
The scene will not be soon effaced from the memory 
of those who were so fortunate as to gaze upon it. 



III. Exercises at music Hall 



The spacious auditorium of Music Hall was 
thronged with a distinguished and inspiring audi- 
ence, numbering not less than three thousand 
people. The Newport Band was stationed at the 
rear of the stage, and on the right and left in front 
were unfurled the Governor's colors and " Old 
Glory." When all was ready, His Excellency, Gov- 
ernor Brown, was escorted to the platform by the 
Committee on Ceremonies, while the band played 
" Hail to the Chief" and the audience rose, mid ap- 
plause. Following His Excellency came the mem- 
bers of the official party, ladies and gentlemen, one 
hundred and fifty in number. Upon the stage 
were among others : 

His Excellency, D. Russell Brown, Governor. 
Members of the General and Personal Staff, in full dress 

uniform. 

BOARD OF world's FAIR MANAGERS OF RHODE ISLAND : 

E. Benjamin Andrews, D.D., LL.D., President. 
Arthur H. Watsou, Vice-President. 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 19 

Hiram Howard, Richard Thornley, 

Walter A. Peck, Marsden J. Perry, 

Daniel B. Pond, John P. Sanborn. 

GOVERNMENT COMMISSIONERS : 

Lyman B. Goff, Mrs. Amey M. Starkweather, 

Gardiner C. Sims, Miss Charlotte F, D alley. 

ALTERNATES : 

Jeffrey Hazard, , Mrs. George A. Mumford, 

Lorillard Spencer, Miss Loraine P. Bucklin. 

EXECUTIVE COMinSSIONER : 

John C. Wyman. 

Hon. Melville Bull, Lieutenant-Governor. 

Professor Alonzo Williams, Orator. 

Henry R. Palmer, Poet. 

Col. William A. James, President of " Society of Sons and 

Daughters of Rhode Island," 

MILITARY GUESTS : 

Gen. Hiram Kendall, Lieut.-Col. Arthur V. Warfield, 

Col. William F. Reynolds, of the Executive Staff of 
Gov. Pattison, Penn. 
Capt. Joseph P. Cotton, Major T. H. Rathbun, 

Capt. Thompson, U. S. A., Lieut. Frederick Wpoley, IT. S. A. 
Ofiicers Newport Artillery. Major Frank H. Harcourt, 

OTHER GUESTS : 

Col. William Goddard, Rev. David H. Greer, 

Hon. Lucius B. Darling, Hon. Warren O. Arnold, 

Hon. Adin B. Capron, Hon. Henry J. Spooner, 

Hon. Henry R. Barker, Hon. J. V/. Horton, 

Hon. Henry L. Greene, Hon. Albert C. Landers, 

Hon. Charles H. Burdick, Hon. Eugene F. Warner, 

Hon. Joseph C. Church, Hon. Nathan D. Pierce, 



20 



RHODE ISLAND DAY 



Col. Frank F. Olney, 
Dr. William H. Palmer, 
Dr. C. F. Barker, 
William Corliss, 
Mrs. D. Russell Brown, 
Mrs. Arthur H. Watson, 
Miss Hope C. Brown, 
Miss Isabel R. Brown, 
Mrs. H. Martin Brown. 
Miss Jennie Eddy, 
Mrs. Nathan D. Pierce, 
Miss Louise Sweetland, 
Miss Maud Pond, 
Miss Harriet C. Batch, 
Mrs. William Corliss, 
Miss Irene Butler, 
Mrs. William F. Reynolds, 
Mrs. Hiram Kendall, 
Mrs. Walter R. Stiness, 
Mrs. John H. Wetherell, 
Miss Addie S. Warfield, 
Mrs. John C. Budlong, 
Mrs. Lucius B. Darling, 

The centre of the hall was occupied by the New- 
port Artillery. On the right were the members of 
" The Society of the Sons and Daughters of Rhode 
Island " residing in Chicago, and behind them was 
a body of the Alumni of Brown University, many 
of them now distinguished judges, lawyers, profes- 
sors, divines, physicians and merchants in Chicago 



Col. Elisha H. Rockwell, 
Cornelius S. Sweetland, 
Charles E. Harvey, 
D. M. Thompson, 
Mrs. Warren O. Arnold, 
Mrs. Adin B. Capron, 
Mrs. John P. Sanborn, 
Miss Caroline C. Greene, 
Miss Florence Sanborn, 
Mrs. Albert C. Landers, 
Mrs. Joseph P. Cotton, 
Mrs. Alvin A. Barker, 
Miss Nannie Pond, 
Mrs. Frank F. Olney, 
Miss Florence Olney, 
Mrs. Daniel J. Sully, 
Mrs. Irving Champlin, 
Mrs. Francis P. Kendall, 
Miss Jane W. Kendall, 
Mrs. Frank Harris, 
Mrs. C. M. Bull, 
Mrs. Dr. Von Gottschalk. 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 21 

and neighboring cities. The remaining seats were 
filled by many citizens and their families who had 
come from Rhode Island. The description of the 
audience is, however, not yet complete. A unique 
feature of the celebration was the high compliment 
paid to Rhode Island and to His Excellency, Gov- 
ernor Brown personally, by the National Commis- 
sioners, who were that day in session at Jackson 
Park. The Commission adjourned the sitting at the 
Administration Building and marched in a body to 
Music Hall to pay their respects to Governor Brown 
and to the State which he with such dignity rep- 
resented. The incident was remarkable, inasmuch 
as this was the first occasion when the National 
Commission had taken part in the celebration of 
a State Day, and Rhode Island and her Governor 
did not fail to appreciate the courtesy and honor. 
When in the midst of the exercises their unexpected 
arrival was announced, Governor Brown sent his 
Chief of Staff and Executive Commissioner, John 
C. Wyman, to meet them and escort them to the 
platform. They brought with them the Mexican 
Band and the Hungarian Orchestra,- and both these 
bands added much to the enjoyment of the occasion 
by rendering at intervals patriotic' and national 
airs. Among the fifty or sixty National Commis- 
missioners present were : 



22 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

Gen, Thomas W. Palmer, President of the National Com- 
mission, 

M. H. DeYoung, of California, Vice-President of the Na- 
tional Commission. 

Gorton W. Allen, of New York, Vice-President of the Na- 
tional Commission. 

John T. Dickenson, of Texas, Secretary of the National 
Commission. 

Mark L. McDonald, of California. 

William Lindsay, of Kentucky. 

Frederick J. V. Skiff, of Colorado. 

George W. Massey, of Delaware. 

LaFayette Funk, of Illinois. 

Thomas E. Proctor, of Massachusetts. 

George H. Barbour, of Michigan. 

James H. Breslin, of New York. 

William Ritchie, of Ohio. 

Virginias D. Groner, of Virginia. 

J. W. St. Clair, of Vf est Virginia. 

Walter Aiken, of New Hampshire. 

Charles H. Jones, of Missouri. 

Elijah B. Martindale, of Indiana. 

Charles H. Deere, of Illinois. 

Lyman B. Goff, of Rhode Island. 

Lorillard Spencer, of Rhode Island. 

Such a distinguished gathering as completely 
filled the stage was in itself a most imposing audi- 
ence quite worth}^ of the august occasion. 



Programme of the Literary exercises 



/IRusic: IRewpott JSan2>. 

Columbian Fantasia, and Cornet' Solo, by Thos. W. Henry. 

E. Benjamin Andrews, President of the Board 
OF World's Fair Managers. 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — As president of the Rhode 
Island World's Fair Commission, it is my honor- 
able duty to open the exercises of this auspicious 
day. Be assured, one and all, that you are very 
welcome. Your Excellency, who distinguish this 
occasion by your official presence ; other members 
of our State government ; representatives of our 
State in Congress and of our various city gov- 
ernments; citizens of Rhode Island still resident 
within her borders ; former residents now hailing 
from afar ; guests who are fain to dry the sweat of 
your brows in summer by the cool breezes of our 
Narragansett Bay ; and any others who may have 



24 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

honored us by attending, in the name of Rhode 
Island and of her World's Fair Commission, I bid 
you heartiest welcome to these festivities. 

Rhode Island and the Union — that is the thought 
Avhich fills the minds of all present at this moment. 
Ladies and Gentlemen : I need not tell any of you 
that territorially Rhode Island is small. So was 
Rome during the years of her proudest deeds. So 
was Athens, always. So were Macedon, and Phoe- 
nicia, and Palestine. States are not great or small 
according to their miles. And, as the little birth- 
town of the Christ, Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, 
was not least among the princes of Juda, so Rhode 
Island, diminutive as she is physically, is far from 
least among the princely constituents of this re- 
public. 

Rhode Island glories in having been one of the 
old thirteen — the first, whether by declaration or by 
overt act, to renounce allegiance to George III. She 
founded the American navy, and its most splendid 
achievement to date stands eternally associated with 
a Rhode Island name. All the world knows how, 
in the person of Oliver Hazard Perry at the im- 
mortal battle of Lake Erie, we of Rhode Island 
'* met the enemy and the}'^ were ours." In sending 
Washington his best subordinate commander in 
the Revolutionary War, 'the matchless Nathanael 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 25 

Greene, Rhode Island had great part also in found- 
ing our army. As an early constitution-framer, 
Stephen Hopkins is worthy to be classed with Ben- 
jamin Franklin. If our State was slow to enter the 
Union — long deliberation before action being a 
marked characteristic of our people — our record 
of services to the Union since we joined it is writ 
large on every page of the nation's history. 

Not a battlefield between the oceans where brave 
men have died for the flag, whose sod is not the 
greener for Rhode Island blood. 

Rhode Island inventions and manufactories are 
known and praised far as civilization has set foot. 

In the building and sailing of those merchant 
fleets which gave the United States business marine 
its brilliant lustre, now dimmed, but to blaze again; 
and as well in the creation of our inland commerce, 
affording that providential education which taught 
our constitution to read nationally, — that divine 
cement which made disunion impossible in the day 
of national trial, — the good wrought for ''this nation 
by Rhode Island was indefinitely out of proportion 
to the number of her souls or her acres. 

We have sent forth innumerable sturdy and en- 
terprising citizens to help people the old states and 
the new. 

We have furnished education for multitudes from 



26 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

other states, who have sought it in our institutions 
of learning. 

Many teachers of the nation and of the world in 
best things are of our own production, among whom 
I name as specimens Roger Williams, William El- 
lery Channing, Francis Wayland, Horace Mann, 
Henry Wheaton, James B. Angell and Rowland 
Gibson Hazard, grandfather of the gifted poetess 
whose lines you will soon hear with delight. 

Notwithstanding, therefore, the lofty and true 
words in praise of other states with which, on their 
respective festal days, this air has rung, we are not 
ashamed to-day, but very proud instead, to throw 
to the breezes of Lake Michigan Rhode Island's flag, 
and to let all the states and nations here assembled 
know that it ripples in honor of the commonwealth 
where we have our home and do our work. 

However, Ladies and Gentlemen, the nation is 
greater than any state, and every true Rhode Isl- 
ander finds it his chief inspiration to-day that what 
our State has accomplished has not ended with her- 
self but has brought strength and riches to the com- 
mon life of this magnificent America of ours, whom 
some now here will live to behold marching, if in- 
deed she is not there already, at the very van of 
the world's civilization. 

And then, peaceable afid puissant among the 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 27 

nations, persuading peace if we can, compelling it 
if we must, it will be ours to inaugurate the era of 
which the great laureate sings : 

' ' Where the war drums throb no longer, 
And the battle flags are furled, 
In the parliament of man. 
The federation of the world, " 

/nbu^ic: IRevvport :®an£). 
Zampa, - - - . - - Herold. 



His Excellency, D. Russell Brown, Governor. 

Mr. President of the Rliode Island Board of Managers 
of the World'' s Columbian Exposition, Ladies and 
Gentlemen : — 

This is Rhode Island's Da}^, the day set apart by 
the managers of the world's unrivalled exhibition 
on which Rhode Island citizens may call special 
attention to her history and her products. 

We, the representatives of the smallest and oldest 
sovereign State of our Union, are assembled here to 
take up the strains of that glorious anthem of praise 
and patriotism whose glowing harmonies from the 
throats of sister commonwealths have reverberated 
amid the walls of these palaces since their gates 
were first opened. We are here from the Eastern 
shores bearing glad greeting and congratulations to 
our brother freemen of this wonderful city, upon 
the magnificent success which has attended the ful- 
filment of a conception as audacious as it is in- 
spiring. " 



RHODE ISLAND DAY 29 

We know it is the greeting of a State whose area 
is insignificant compared with the almost boundless 
expanse of other States, but we ask you to-day to 
overlook that familiar fact, and to take the broader 
view of Rhode Island which her age and her his- 
tory unfolds, for that is the mental picture which 
Rhode Islanders always bear of their beloved com- 
monwealth, an image stimulating a strong feeling 
of loyalty and exalted local pride, which perhaps 
seems somewhat peculiar to others. The history of 
our State is a birthright which neither lands nor 
gold can buy, for full as it is of stirring and pas- 
sionate events, there is not an incident in our 
annals that can bring the scarlet of shame to the 
cheek of civilized man. Roger Williams, the first 
settler, the thrice-exiled friend of the weak and 
oppressed, by his revolt against Puritan intolerance 
and his sacrifices for soul liberty, baptized Rhode 
Island's early days with glory sufficient for any 
State. It will be your pleasure to listen to-day to 
one of his distinguished descendants in "the person 
of our orator. The red men, who warmly wel- 
comed Williams to his haven of refuge, never af- 
terwards had cause to accuse our people of tor- 
ture, treachery or theft. Harassed and spurned as 
Rhode Island was by the stronger colonies of New 
England, she more than once stepped before the 



30 EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 

angry hand of the Indian, when his blow could 
have wiped from the land the early settlers of the 
North. Nor did any of the thirteen stars that first 
formed the national constellation, shed with greater 
brilliancy the light of freedom and liberty. From 
her sloops went the first shot at the wooden walls 
of Britain and her sons were the foremost to shed 
the blood which bought " a government of the 
people, by the people and for the people." Amid 
those troublous hours, while struggling with pov- 
erty within and foe without, she laid the founda- 
tion of our American navy with one of her citi- 
zens as the commander-in-chief, and gave to the 
Continental armies Nathanael Greene, an officer 
second only to Washington. The independent 
spirit of her people which prompted her to be 
the first to renounce allegiance to the mother 
country, caused her to be cautious in entering the 
uncertain restraints of the confederacy, but once 
having thrown in her lot with the Union, no State 
gave more freely of her life blood and treasure for 
its preservation than " Little Rhody. " Among her 
honored dead is the intrepid Commodore Perry, 
who, after scattering the English squadron on Lake 
Erie, wrote upon the records of American heroism 
those inspiring words, " We have met the enemy 
and they are ours." HaTf a century later she sent 



RHODE ISLAND DAY 31 

forth the gallant Burnside, and that brave band of 
blue, that rose from the farms and factory villages 
as promptly as the country called. 

Many times since its settlement has the life of 
our little commonwealth been in jeopardy. Her 
faithful and friendly attitude towards the Indians, 
however, preserved not only her own existence but 
also that of neighboring colonies who were anx- 
ious to share her territory. , The wine press of the 
revolution bruised her bitterly, and left her with 
commerce shattered and farms abandoned, but she 
welcomed to her midst Samuel Slater, who a little 
more than a century ago started the cotton industry 
which to-day is one of the principal sources of the 
State's wealth. Her contribution to the Civil War 
left her burdened with a heavy debt, which in a 
few months will be wiped out. 

What Rhode Island is to day, we invite you to 
see for yourselves. Our modest little building on 
these grounds speaks but of the size of her territory. 
Visit the machinery hall, and the noise'^of the en- 
gines and the whirl of the wheels -from Rhode 
Island shall greet 3^ou at every turn. In the mag- 
nificent pavilion of manufactures you will see her 
famous workers in silver and you will find the 
choicest handiwork of her army of jewelers, and 
your attention will be attracted by the products of 



32 EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 

our State's industry in woven goods of cotton, wool 
and other fabrics. Her women are well represented 
in their departments and her hardy fishermen dis- 
play the methods of their toil. You are also in- 
vited to examine what she is doing for the younger 
generation of her children in the direction of edu- 
cating hand and mind. She has taken of her best 
and sent it hither in friendly rivalry with all the 
world, and her exhibits not only reflect credit upon 
her people but are a necessary complement of the 
growing industries of this mighty nation. 

It is my pleasurable duty, as governor, to wel- 
come you all to join in our celebration. You, who 
have traversed the thousand miles which separate 
us from home, need no utterance of mine to assure 
you that you are welcome. The laudable desire 
to sustain the reputation of our State which has 
prompted so many of you to come at this time 
is greatly appreciated. 

To you, sons and daughters of Rhode Island, 
who have sought in these glorious western lands a 
wider sphere for your ability and energy, I extend 
that large hearted welcome with which you were 
familiar in your early days. We know the honor 
of your native State has been carefully guarded in 
your new-found homes and that your love for the 
banner of ^' Hope " is no fess than your loyalty to 
the red, white and blue. 



RHODE ISLAND DAY 33 

Right welcome, indeed, are you, our friends from 
other States, children with us of a common country. 
Rhode Island citizens claim it no small glory, that 
while preserving their individuality as a State, they 
may share with you the glorious heritage which our 
forefathers fought to secure. And no less hearty 
is our greeting to you, our friends of other lands, 
guests of this vigorous nation. We are honored by 
your presence to-day, and as we rejoice in the fed- 
eration of States, so we look forward with hope to 
the federation of the world, which is typified in the 
grand spectacle spread before us. 

But our acquaintance must not cease with to-day. 
Come to us when the summer sun is shining and 
the soft breezes are blowing from the ocean and we 
will unveil to you a landscape of bay and shore, of 
field and grove, whose beauties shall enrapture, and 
drive from your brow the clouds of care. We will 
fascinate you with the charms, the comforts and 
pleasures of our summer homes. We will also take 
you to the most populous hive of industry this 
nation knows; we will show you large and comfort- 
able factories; we will show you prosperous homes of 
artisans '' cunning to work in gold, and in silver, 
and in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and in 
crimson and blue and that can skill to grave." We 
will welcome you to a community animated with a 



34 EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 

spirit of push and enterprise that will delight even 
the active city under whose genial guardianship we 
are gathered to-day. 

ilRusfc : 
Mexican Band and Hungarian Orchebtra. 



Professor Alonzo Williams. 

Your Excellency, Ladies and .Gentlemen : — It marks 
an epoch in the history of a State when it pauses a 
day to conquer forgetfuhiess. A man who has ar- 
rived at full maturity, at a clear conception of his 
relations, his duties, his mission, pauses to retrace 
the arduous steps, the struggles, the defeats, the 
triumphs, which have brought him to the threshold 
of his desires, that he may pluck inspiration from 
the past and gird himself for the future that invites 
him. Thus pauses to-day our State and runs back 
the checkered centuries to gather up t-he scattered 
rays of her glory, that they ma^^^ illumine the path 
she is destined henceforth to tread. 

Weak-winged are words, indeed,' to climb the 
height of such a theme, to do justice to such a day. 
All attempt at learned historical discourse is bej^ond 
the preparation of the speaker and undesired by you. 
Any statistical array of the elements that make up 
the record of our glory would scarcely be warranted 



36 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

by the time your patience grants. The utmost I 
may attempt, is to trace the main outlines of the 
wondrous development of this Republic, and call 
your attention to the distinguished part Rhode 
Island has pla37ed in the high mission to which 
this people has been called ; and I shall count my- 
self happy if, under the inspiration of this presence 
and of the dignity of this occasion, I may throw 
&uch outlines upon the canvas as will enable you to 
fill in the details and add the colors to the picture. 

THE REPUBLIC. ITS MISSION. 

We stand to-day upon the crest of the centuries. 
The history and achievements of four hundred years 
pass in majestic procession before the bewildered 
gaze until we are lost in admiration and amaze- 
ment and awe; the era of discoveries, crowded with 
adventure and emblazoned with the names of those 
hardy mariners of Spain and France and England, 
whose brave keels cut on Vinland sands the first 
runes in the great Saga of the West ; the era of 
colonization, pregnant with such mighty issues and 
adorned with such mighty names, men of old, 

" Now ancient like the gods 
And safe as stars in all men's memories ; " 

the era of the revolution, when only heroes lived ; 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 37 

the critical era of confederation ; the long struggle 
for national life under the Constitution and for the 
Union, which so nearly ended in the greatest trag- 
edy in history. These pages read to-day like the 
books of a grand Homeric Epos. Every hour has 
been an hour of splendid destiny. Every era has 
been an era of splendid triumph. The entire record 
is resplendent with brilliant achievements, which 
hold captive the admiration of the world, and the 
crowned result, upon which we gaze to-day, sur- 
passes the incredulous tales of the romancers of old 
and out runs the swiftest reach of apprehension. 

DIVINE MISSION. 

Who, that is conversant with this record, crowded 
with the destinies of a world, can escape the con- 
viction that this land was selected, this people 
chosen, this Republic established for the accom- 
plishment of a divine mission ? "America is a last 
effort of Divine Providence in behalf of the human 
race," writes the sage of Concord. The history of 
America is in itself a liberal education and should 
henceforth occupy a leading place in the curricu- 
lum of our common schools. The study of the 
history of such a nation, its birth, ^its development, 
its mission, imparts genuine culture, enlarges the 
horizon of the soul, gives confidence in the perma- 



38 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

nence and continuity of human institutions, faith 
in an overruling Providence, and lifts us to that 
high plane of contemplation where inspiration is 
inhaled. 

Political students aver that the causes which have 
wrought in America such stupendous and unpar- 
alleled results, are these : The topographical and 
climatic conditions, the ethnic character of the peo- 
ple, and the moulding influence of its political in- 
stitutions. 

A land embracing climatic conditions so varied 
that everything necessary for civilized man can be 
readily produced ; vast central plains sloping from 
mountain chains on the east and the west, and 
watered by streams that flow together into one 
valley of three times a million square miles in 
extent ; eighty thousand miles of navigable river 
banks, exceeding five fold those of Europe entire ; 
a chain of inland seas, carrying one-half nearly the 
fresh water of the globe ; a coast line of fourteen 
thousand miles, affording harbors on two oceans 
and unsurpassed — was ever race cradled in such a 
land ? The very face of its map, the contour of its 
vast areas, the solid ribs of granite which bind them 
together, its affluent and confluent streams, all pro- 
claim, as b}^ divine decree, the unit}'^, the political 
integrity of the Republicf and the rich elements 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 39 

of soil and climate conspire to fulfill the destiny 
of the nation. "America is," indeed, " but another 
name for opportunity." 

Moreover, the ethnic character of a people was 
never more suitably adapted to its physical environ- 
ment and to its political mission than that of the 
dominant race in the New World. That grand 
struggle for supremacy in the beginning was the 
first crucial test in our history. Then and there 
was decided the fate of this Republic. The son of 
the Teuton prevailed over the descendant of the 
Koman. Arminius, not Caesar, in Liberty's royal 
line, is the ancestor of Washington and Lincoln. 
Had the Saxon succumbed, this Republic could not 
have been, for from the forests of Ancient Germania 
we inherited the germs of free institutions. The 
pregnant import of that early struggle cannot be 
overestimated. No class of men probably ever made 
a greater change in the fortunes of mankind than 
those hardy, tenacious vikings of the sixteenth cen- 
tury. Their daring expeditions altered the destiny 
of the American continent, and thereby the career 
of the human race ; and the record of their deeds 
has all the vigor and raciness of romance and the 
charm of poetry. 

But the form of our political institutions is at 
once the chief cause of our prosperity and the 



40 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

proudest result of our endeavor. "A government 
of the people, by the people and for the people " is 
the one product which we exhibit with greatest 
pride in this Columbian year. This has been the 
mainspring and the chief cause of our marvellous 
development. Freedom liberates manhood, genius, 
inspiration, and from these flow material prosperity, 
social order, intellectual activity. The moulding in- 
fluence of a government founded upon the equality 
of the individual has in this country wrought mir- 
acles such as ne'er before surprised the Muse of 
History. The stranger comes to us a serf and is 
made a freeman, he comes a subject and is invited 
to become a ruler, he comes ignorant and is made 
an intellectual peer, he comes poor and is made 
rich. Thus by the magic of freedom and oppor- 
tunity a perilous heterogeneity is transmuted into 
a solid homogeneity, bound by the ties of a com- 
mon interest and fused by the ardor of a common 
aspiration. 

MATERIAL PROSPERITY. 

In material prosperity, behold, whether we have 
been worthy of our splendid opportunity, worthy 
of our noble ancestry, worthy of the liberty we 
enjoy. Vast as is that subject, touch it at a few 
points where America le^ds the world ; in agri- 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 41 

culture, in manufactures, in mining, in the appli- 
cation of science to industry and art, in wealth. 
Who dare quote statistics ? The advance along 
these lines is so tremendous that ere the echo of 
our words has died away upon the air, the increase 
has already been so marvellous that the speaker is 
behind the times. 

In agriculture America has in a century marched 
from the rear to the head of the column, and even 
Russia is second only longo intervallo. Nature has 
lavished her bounties upon this land in a manner 
that is absolutely prodigal, and we have not failed 
to appreciate her favor. One quarter our total cap- 
ital is invested in agriculture. I dare not state the 
thousands of millions, lest you discredit me or the 
figures daze the mind and paralyze the imagination. 
One quarter of our total industrial product she 
yields, and she claims the services of more than 
two-fifths of all our laborers. We of the East do 
not always appreciate the magnitude and the dig- 
nity of this, our most important industry. From 
the beginning of civilization, Ceres has been the 
goddess under whose benign influence has devel- 
oped not material prosperity alone, but the rights 
of property, then home, then government, then 
culture and art ; and all the divinities, from Ter- 
ininus and Themis to Apollo and the Graces, have 

6 



42 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

gladly followed the triumphal chariot of the triple 
turreted queen. 

Not only in the soil, but beneath the soil, our 
supremacy is easy. Under waving fields of golden 
grain are endless chambers stored with treasures 
such as Aladdin's lamp ne'er disclosed, of gold, of 
silver, of copper, of iron, of coal, in quality and 
quantity elsewhere unknown. 

In manufactures America leads the world, and em- 
ploys three and one-half millions skilled workmen. 

Again, in the application of science to industry 
and art America has no competitor. To say that 
steam and electricity were first harnessed to our 
chariot, to say that the majority of inventions 
growing out of their uses, the telegraph, the tele- 
phone, electric lighting, and a thousand others, 
are all offspring of the American brain, that one- 
half all the iron rails laid on the earth are laid 
in America, that one quarter all the telegraph 
wires are stretched above our heads, to say this, 
and similar things, means something, but when we 
think of all the hurrying traffic and ceaseless in- 
dustries these represent, when we think of the mil- 
lions of skilled and intelligent laborers to whom all 
this furnishes employment, high wages and happy 
homes, then our admiration for America and her 
industries begins. 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 43 

It goes without saying, America leads the nations 
in wealth. Sixty Thousand Millions ! Compre- 
hend it? Ah me ! Herbert Spencer need not run 
so far afield into the '' Unknowable " to search out 
that which passes the human understanding. We 
collect these statistics, we write them down in fig- 
ures, we repeat them in^ words, we print them in 
books, but they convey no definite meaning even 
to the tutored mind. 

In the so called higher forms of intellectual ac- 
tivity, Europeans deny us still a rank, in literature, 
in art, in refinement and culture. In place of these 
we have, however, that which we could ill afford 
to exchange for all their treasures. Much has been 
done along these very lines of which we are justly 
proud, but the hot, the impetuous intellectual life 
of America has poured itself into other moulds, into 
conquest of our domain, into manufactures, into rail- 
roads, into cities, into commonwealths. The glory 
of action, the triumphs of life, not the seclusion of 
letters, have been our inspiration and'^ carried cap- 
tive our best genius. Intellectual power ? Yes ! and 
of the ver}?^ best, original, creative power, has gone, 
not into Iliads and Infernos, but into shorter roads 
to commodious and noble living,^into universal ed- 
ucation, into states and constitutions. These, too, 
have value and virtue, no less than epics and 



44 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

dramas and Sistine Chapels, and to exchange the 
Declaration of Independence for a Divina Comme- 
dia, were the exchange of the golden armor of 
Glaucus for the brazen armor of Diomede. 

Ladies and gentlemen ! Such are some of the 
glories of America : a land teeming with hidden 
treasures ; a land possessing one-half the railroads, 
one-third the mining, one-quarter the manufac- 
tures, one-quarter the agriculture, one-quarter the 
telegraph wires, one-sixth the wealth of the entire 
globe; a land occupied by sixty-five millions of the 
best fed, best clothed, best housed, best paid, best 
educated people on God's footstool ; a land with an 
invested capital of untold millions, spending upon 
education six times as much jper capita as Europe, 
with twelve million happy children in its public 
schools, with four hundred colleges and universi- 
ties for men, and two hundred for women (for it is 
in America that woman is at last attaining to that 
higher intellectual life which she so well adorns), 
and five hundred schools of law, and medicine and 
theology and science ; a land where the government 
rests upon the liberty and equality of the governed ; 
who is not proud to be a citizen, a king, in such a 
Republic ! 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 45 

RHODE ISLAND. HER PART. 

What part has Rhode Island played in this 
mighty drama? By what virtue is she entitled to 
a front seat in this great Congress of common- 
wealths ? Were it not more modest in such a little 
State to sit unheard and let Massachusetts and New 
York and Virginia tell how they prepared the 
country and shaped its early destiny ; and let the 
great west show the assembled nations how big we 
have come to be? Yes, were States measured by 
the league and heroic achievements weighed by 
silver and gold. This is Rhode Island Day, and 
yet we would not boast. The record unadorned is 
enough to show that our colony assumed from the 
first a unique position, and that in more than one 
important crisis in ^our history Rhode Island has 
proved herself something more than a peer of her 
sisters. 

ROGER WILLIAMS. 

At the risk of an anti-climax, let us mention our 
greatest glory first : the principle- upon which our 
State was founded and the character of the founder, 
Roger Williams. Here Rhode Island stands alone, 
without a rival, and with just pride we may re-read 
to-day this title page in our history and recall the 



46 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

glorious triumph of our great founder in his solitary 
struggle in the cause of spiritual freedom. The 
compact signed by the Pilgrims on the Mayflower 
is bepraised as the first attempt to establish a gov- 
ernment on the basis of the general good. Shall 
the covenant subscribed by the first settlers of 
Providence occupy in history a less honorable 
place? In the valley of the Mooshausic, on the 
hills where you dwell, for the first time in history was 
set up a government on the basis of religious lib- 
erty. There came into being a political community 
which was an anomaly among the nations, a pure 
democracy, but " only in civil things,'^ so reads the 
covenant. And this thing was done in little Rhode 
Island. Nay more, this Rhode Island idea, as it 
was derisively called, has become the accepted and 
fundamental maxim of American politics, and has 
been incorporated into the constitution of every 
State. Even Massachusetts has deigned to tread 
the path cleared in the wilderness by her great 
exile, though strange as it seems, she waited two 
centuries ere working out a complete divorce of 
Church and State, and up to 1833 her citizens were 
taxed for the support of the church. No one prin- 
ciple of political or social or religious polity lies 
nearer the base of American institutions and has 
done more to shape our career than this principle 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 47 

inherited from Rhode Island, and it may be asserted 
that the future of America was in a large measure 
determined by that General Court which summoned 
Roger Williams to answer for " divers neiv and dan- 
gerous opinions," and his banishment became " a 
pivotal act in universal history." Are we boasting, 
or are we just reading the record, and that too, 
without much emphasis ? 

Personally Roger Williams was no ordinary man. 
While his never-failing sweetness of temper and 
unquestioned piety won for him the warmest affec- 
tion even of his opponents, yet he was a man of 
stern parts, 

" Limbed like the old heroic breeds, 
Who stand self -poised on manhood's earth, 
Not forced to frame excuses for his birth, 
Fed from within with all the strength he needs ; " 

he was a man of unyielding tenacity of purpose, a 
man who grasped clearly a principle in all its bear- 
ing and could incorporate it in a social compact. 
Moreover, he was no crude, unlearned -^agitator, but 
a scholar and thinker. On the roll of the ancient 
Charter House in London will be found his name 
among the first, above those of Addison and Steele, 
of Wesley and Blackstone, of Grote and Thack- 
eray. He was a graduate of Cambridge, an elo- 
quent preacher, an intimate friend of Sir Harry 



48 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

Vane, a teacher of Milton. Behold it ! the author 
of Paradise Lost sitting at the feet of the author of 
Soul-Liberty. Not only his learning, but his ver- 
satility was extraordinary. He was by turns, re- 
porter, preacher, trader, farmer, scholar, diplomat, 
linguist, teacher, legislator, judge, soldier, man of 
letters. He was a stalwart, even among the intel- 
lectual giants of those early days, when men 
thought great thoughts. He stands alone in Amer- 
ican history, the only one of his kind, and he 
belongs to Rhode Island. Such is her unique 
glory, Roger Williams and Religious Liberty, and 
this alone were enough to immortalize one State. 

THE ERA OP THE REVOLUTION. 

Glance at another era, the period of the Revolu- 
tion. Did you ever count upon the fingers the 
matters of grave importance in which Rhode Island 
was first, facile princeps f 

She was the first to instruct her officers to disre- 
gard the Stamp Act and to ensure them indemnity 
for so doing.' 

She was first to support the resolutions passed 
by the House of Burgesses in Virginia in 1769, 
declaring that in them alone was vested the right 

'Arnold, Hist. R. L, IL, 261, 286. 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 49 

of taxation. Rhode Island had explicitly declared 
the same thing four years earlier.' 

The people of Providence in town meeting as- 
sembled was the first authorized body to recom- 
mend the permanent establishment of a Continen- 
tal Congress," and the General Assembly of Rhode 
Island was the first to appoint delegates thereto.' 

Rhode Island formally enacted and declared her 
independence of Great Britain two months before 
the Declaration of Independence by Congress. She 
is thus the oldest independent sovereign govern- 
ment in the western world.* 

Rhode Island was first to brave royalty in arms, 
and she spilled the first blood in the war for in- 
dependence. Before Lexington/ even before the 
famous Boston ''Tea Party,'" men of Newport had 
sunk His Royal Majesty's armed sloop Liberty,' 
and men of Providence had sent up the Gaspee in 
flames.' 

Rhode Island was the first to establish a naval 
armament in America, she fired the "first cannon 

• Arnold, Hist. R. I., II., 295, 286. 
5 May 17, 1774. Arnold, Hist. R. I., II., 334. - 

^ Samuel Ward and Esek Hopkins, June 15, 1774. Arnold, Hist. R. I., 
11. , 336. 
^May 4, 1776. Arnold, Hist. R. I., II., 273. R. I. Col. Rec. VII., 522. 
^ Lexington, April 19, 1775. « Boston " Tea Party," Dec. 16, 1773. 

'July 19, 1769. Arnold, Hist. R. I., II., 297. 
,« June 9-10, 1772. Arnold, Hist. R. I., II., 312, 317-318. 
7 



50 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

at the roj^al navy, she captured the first prize/ she 
was the first to recommend and urge upon Con- 
gress the establishment of a Continental Navy, she 
was chosen to execute the plans,' our townsman, 
Esek Hopkins, was the first Commander-in-Chief, 
(then so called) and three fourths of all the officers 
were from the little State of Rhode Island, whose 
bold mariners were the very vikings of the Amer- 
ican Revolution." 

Again, in proportion to her size and population, 
none of the thirteen States can compare with little 
Rhode Island in contributions to the Continental 
Loan. I cannot resist the persuasion to pause just 
a moment to emphasize that important item. We 
all know how vital to success are the sinews of war, 
not only of loyal men, but none the less of money. 
Bitter experience has taught us this, in our own 
day and generation. Who was it during that long 
and critical struggle, who unlocked their private 
treasures and poured them like water into the com- 
mon cause for independence, and that, too, without 
hope of return ? The loyal patriotic citizens of 
Rhode Island ! Though her State treasury was 
exhausted and largely in debt, by reason of ex- 
penses incurred during the French war, yet how 

'June 15, 1775. Arnold, Hist. R. I., II., 350-351. 

2 Arnold, Hist. R. I., II., 355-856. " « Arnold, Hist. R. I., II., 362. 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 51 

nobly, how generously, how patriotically, she re- 
sponded to the urgent call, history bears witness. 
The accounts of the Continental Loan Office, in 
1783, show that only four States had contributed 
more than Rhode Island, diminutive though she 
was. Read the glorious account: Maryland, four 
times as populous, Rhode Island contributes one 
and a half times as much ; a ratio of six to one. 
Virginia, eight times as populous, Rhode Island 
contributes twice as much ; a ratio of sixteen to 
one. North Carolina, three times as populous, 
Rhode Islana contributes six times as much ; a 
ratio of eighteen to one. South Carolina, three 
times as populous, Rhode Island contributes seven 
times as much ; a ratio of twenty-one to one. 
Because Rhode Island hesitated to surrender to the 
Federal government the liberties enjoyed under her 
charter, the most liberal ever granted to a colony, 
shall detractors still continue to charge her with a 
lack of patriotism ? History answers. The balance 
sheet of that Continental Loan Account, made up 
by the Board of Commissioners appointed by Con- 
gress in 1789, hung up before you on the walls 
of this auditorium, were in itself alone eloquent 
enough for an address on this historic occasion.' 

' Madison Papers, Gilpin's Ed., 364, 431. Bancroft's Hist. Const. TJ. S., 
81. Pitkin's Pol. and Civ. Hist. U. S., 346, 538. 



52 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

Again, Rhode Island contributed not only as 
much money, but also proportionally as many men, 
to the common cause, as any State, and they fought 
in every great battle under Washington during the 
war,' while Springfield and Red Bank and Quaker 
Hill, and especially Trenton Bridge, showed the 
stuff of which they were made. Nor must we for- 
get to add that in the field Nathanael Greene was 
second only to Washington, and in the councils of 
the nation Stephen Hopkins was second to none. 

I forbear, lest there be nothing of the first grade 
during this period left for the other States. Mas- 
sachusetts has been especially fortunate in the un- 
usually large number of brilliant men of letters 
who have devoted their lives to the happy task 
of singing her praise and of embalming in prose 
and verse the immortal achievements with which 
her career is crowded. " O fortunate youth," said 
Alexander, as he stood by the tomb of Achilles in 
Sigeum, " O fortunate youth, who found Homer as 
the herald of thy virtues. For had there been no 
niad, the same tomb which covered thy body would 
have buried also thy name." Rhode Island has 
not been wanting in first things and great deeds, 
but Massachusetts has been more than rich in the 
heralds of her virtue. 

' Staples' K. I. in Cont. Cong., 400. ' ^ 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 53 

THE PRESENT CENTURY. 

This hour would hardly permit us to point out 
how nobly Rhode Island has borne herself in times 
of peace and in times of war during the present 
century. " We have met the enemy and they are 
ours " was the watchword from Rhode Island in 
1812. Twenty-four thousand loyal sons, led by 
that ideal soldier, the hero sans peur et sa7is reproche, 
Ambrose E. Burnside, was Rhode Island's contribu- 
tion to the nation in 1861. In the arts of peace, 
our State has from the very beginning occupied 
a prominent position : in cotton, in woolen and 
worsteds, in jewelry, in thread, in machinery, in 
engines, in screws, in silver ; and in more than one 
of these industries she leads the world. Even At- 
tleboro and Newark as centres for the manufacture 
of jewelry can hardly be mentioned beside Provi- 
dence, with its 167 separate establishments, and 
ten millions of capital ; and Birmingham, Moscow 
and Odessa are but small affairs in "^comparison. 
Moreover, no establishment for the manufacture of 
silver in the world can be mentioned at the same 
moment with Gorham's. In the manufacture of 
cotton Rhode Island may lay cla;im to a peculiar 
honor, for it was she who laid the foundations of 
this great American industry. Samuel Slater, the 



54 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

'' Father of American Manufactures," as President 
Jackson named him, set up his Arkwright ma- 
chinery in Pawtucket in the year 1790, and by 
forty-five years of unremitting toil built up an 
industry unequalled in his day, planting mills all 
over Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut and 
New Hampshire, and from him Avent out skilled 
workmen to establish the manufacture of cotton 
all over this land. Over one-half of the capital of 
the State is to-da}^ invested in this industry, and 
one corporation, the largest in the world, renders 
its dozen villages musical with the hum of 421,000 
spindles, and makes them beautiful by the happi- 
ness of more than 7,000 operatives. 

FAITH. 

Ladies and gentlemen ! The year eighteen hun- 
dred and ninety three witnesses in our land a re- 
birth of patriotism, a renaissance of nationality. 
This is our golden jubilee, and we invite our kin 
of all the earth to celebrate with us our festival 
and behold how the God of the nations has blessed 
this people. 

On this four hundredth anniversary we raise 
our national hero in marble, in silver, in gold, to 
the pedestal in the national pantheon beside the 
immortals of the Columbian race : Columbus, the 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 55 

discoverer ; Washington, the father ; Lincoln, the 
savior of his country ! 

These, our national heroes, typify that eleraent of 
character which has inspired the American people 
through the struggle of the centuries to this tri- 
umphant issue, Faith: the highest, the deepest, the 
most potent power that moves man or nations to 
supremest action ; Faith, that element of moral 
character which dominated all others in each of 
these heroes ; faith in a divine ruler, faith in a 
divine mission, faith in themselves ; a faith that 
enabled them to stand self-poised among men, a 
faith unwavering in their convictions of truth and 
duty ; a faith that discerned a light in the dark- 
ness, when other men saw only into night and 
gloom ; a faith that credentialed their divine mis- 
sion among men. 

What Ave honor most in the man Columbus is 
his sublime faith ; a faith that all the superstition 
and credulity of the 15th century could not under- 
mine ; a faith that all the ignorance "of learning 
and science could not shake ; a faith that all the 
indifference and insults and treachery of kings 
and courts could not discourage ; a faith so fine, so 
spiritual that it was counted madndss and delusion ; 
a faith so keen that it imparted the divination of 
genius and prophecy ; a faith so strong, so insistent 



56 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

that had there been no New World, God would 
have created one for him to discover. 

This faith is the key-note of American history. 
Faith it was, that led the early colonists to plant the 
seeds of a new civilization upon the hard, forbidding 
coast of New England. Faith it was, that led Roger 
Williams into the wilderness, that he might estab- 
lish for mankind the principle of spiritual-liberty. 
Faith it was, that led our fathers through struggle 
to liberty and independence. Faith it was, that in 
our day led this people, under our great martyr- 
hero, through the Red Sea of civil strife into the 
land of promise which we to-day enjoy. Faith it 
is, that to-day moves the wheels of all our indus- 
tries and enables us to invite the nations of the 
earth to gaze upon a spectacle in this queen city of 
the West such as the sun in his eternal course never 
before shone upon. It is faith, a faith that is opti- 
mistic, faith in God, faith in man, faith in the sub- 
lime mission of this country. Faith has ever been 
and is to-day the central fact in American civiliza- 
tion, running like a golden thread through all the 
warp and woof of that grand tapestry we have been 
weaving on the great loom of the centuries, em- 
blazoned with the birth and triumphs of a nation, 
and pictured with the lives of its heroes and saints 
and martyrs. 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 57 

Let US learn this lesson from the past : Faith ! 
When pessimism encroaches upon optimism, when 
anarchy defies law, when political or financial or 
social dangers gather about us, when pilots are 
faithless, and timid or treacherous men are at the 
helm ; then, inspired by the matchless achievements 
of a glorious past, aroused^ to noblest effort by the 
opportunities of a splendid present ; then, like our 
hero, Columbus, with an unwavering faith in our 
hearts, a faith in the divine mission to which this 
nation has been called, a faith that the land of 
freedom and prosperity is before us, let us plant 
ourselves upright and firm upon the prow of the 
ship, and keep our eye fixed firmly upon the 
bright star of hope in the West that still beckons 
us, on, on ! 

/IRuBic: flewport Mm\t>. 



Read by Col. John C. Wyman. 



RHODE ISLAND'S GIFT 



Last of the thirteen, smallest of them all, 
What canst thou bring to this World's Festival, 
Where all thy sisters come with pride and power, 
And bring each one a Princess' generous dower 
Of gold and gems, and fruits, and precious woods, 
And joyous tribute of their costly goods. 

The wild Atlantic beats thy shore. 

The fleecy sea fog folds thee round, 
Point Judith counts its wrecks by score, 

Where stately ships their graves have found. 
The Seekonk takes its shining way 

Past swelling hills of tender green. 
To where the waters of the bay 

Bask softly in their silver sheen. 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 59 

So small a State that it is true 

From any top of highest hill, 
Another State still comes to view 

To give the gazing eye its fill. 

What can we bring? No outward show of gain, 
No pomp of state ; we bring the sons of men ! 
The man who lived two centuries ago 
In persecutions which set hearts aglow, 
Who dared to say when every where, world wide, 
Men made belief and state-craft coincide, 
" We have no law to punish or disperse 
Those who express their faith in ways diverse ;" 
Successors to that man, full well may dare 
To claim the}^ are a prophet's lawful heir. 
These many years to us there have not failed 
Some lofty spirits with whom truth prevailed, 
Who stood for right, the high, the ideal things. 
Until this freedom with its healing wings 
Spread over all the land, and now the whole 
From East to West has the Rhode Island soul. 

Bring gold, fair sisters, yellow-gold. 
And gems and all that's fair and fine. 

And heap them all, the new, the old. 
Before our country's stately shrine. 

Bring hardihood from north and east. 



60 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

Bring beauty from the south and west, 
Bring valor to adorn the feast, 

Bring all that has withstood time's test. 
We grudge you not the riches rare, 

We grudge you not your acres broad ; 
We bring you for our noble share 

THE LIBERTY TO WORSHIP GOD. 

— Caroline Hazard. 



/Ibustc: /Iftejican JBanD. 



THE SONS OF RHODE ISLAND 



Col. William A. James. 



We stand to day in the presence of the largest 
representation of the people of the earth and of its 
resources, the products of human industries and the 
inventions that have been gathered together. 

It is wonderful in magnitude and excellence, and 
the cooperation of the whole world was needed to 
produce it. Much labor and study are required to 
comprehend it, and it will pass into histor}^ as the 
Exposition beyond which no city, stale or nation 
will ever attempt to go. It has been one of the 
features of the Fair to arrange for- special days to be 
called " State Days," and to-day is Rhode Island's 
day, and hundreds of her citizens have assembled 
to make it a success. 

The great states of New York, Pennsylvania, lUi- 



62 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

nois, Ohio and Indiana, with Iowa and Massachu- 
setts, have had their days. All great and wonderful 
states, of which we are proud. Our great state of 
Illinois is an empire. Situated in the valley of 
the Mississippi, whose waters flow along its westerly 
borders for nearly seven degrees of latitude, it com- 
prises an area of territor}^ more than that of the 
whole New England states. While all this is true, 
it is also true that, while Rhode Island does not 
cut a very big figure on the map of the American 
Republic, the traveler who leaves Rhode Island 
out of his route can tell you but little of what the 
American people are. 

It was once said by a distinguished Rhode Isl- 
ander in Congress, in response to some derogatory 
remarks regarding the dimensions of our little 
state, that " what the eye is to the elephant, Rhode 
Island is to the Union." I think it was Doesticks 
who says that he visited the state of Connecticut 
and that he had walked around the state of Rhode 
Island before breakfast. In speaking of his expe- 
rience he said that '' if Connecticut is the land of 
' wooden nutmegs,' Rhode Island is the greater 
(grater)." We are all proud of Rhode Island, of 
her splendid material development, of her wonder- 
ful resources and all that goes to make a state rich 
and great and her people happy. We are prouder 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 63 

still of the achievements of her sons and daughters. 
The impress of the genius of her sons is upon the 
pages of our country's history. 

In the long line of distinguished Rhode Islanders, 
let me speak of General Nathanael Greene, that 
patriot of Revolutionary fame, second only to Gen- 
eral Washington as a general and a hero, whose 
name will live as long as the American Revolu- 
tion is remembered. 

General Ambrose E. Burnside, whom every Rhode 
Islander loved, whose memory is still dear to us all, 
who won the praise of every lover of his country 
for his military achievements. Let me speak of 
General Rodman, Colonel Slocum, Major Sullivan 
Ballou, of Ives, Turner, Shaw and Curtis, and the 
numberless Rhode Island heroes who gave their 
lives in support of the Union. At the head of 
this great Exposition stands a man of iron nerve, 
of great executive ability (as you know he must 
be), of wonderful resources, known as the Director 
General, George R. Davis. We claim him as a 
Rhode Islander, as he was an officer in a Rhode 
Island regiment during the war of '61-65. Now as 
to the Sons and Daughters of Rhode Island in 
Chicago, I wish to say we havfe an organization 
and a membership of about one hundred. 

We have in our membership the son of an ex- 



64 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

governor of Rhode Island, a former president of 
the common council of Providence, the son of a 
former speaker of the House of Representatives of 
Rhode Island. In our membership you will find 
the names of Francis, Ballon, Chace, Angell, Tay- 
lor, Belden, Cozzens, Waterman, Cragin, Wolcott, 
Peckham, and others, all good Rhode Island names 
with which you are familiar. I can say that the 
Rhode Islanders living in Chicago have done their 
part to make this great city by the murmuring 
waters of Lake Michigan what it is, the wonder 
and admiration of the world. In behalf of the 
Sons and Daughters of Rhode Island, I can say 
we are glad to see you, and give you a right royal 
welcome. May your stay be pleasant and j)rofi table. 



ilRugfc : mewport 3Ban5. 



By Henry Robinson Palmer. 

Though by Michigan we stray, 

Yet our constant thought to-day 
Stealeth swift across the mountains 

Back to Narragansett Bay ;. 

To its hill-tops flushing fair, 

In the sweet Atlantic air. 
And the dear and gracious Mother 

In her beauty seated there. 

If our footsteps we retrace 

To the old abiding place, 
What a joy of welcome shineth 

In her calm and kindly face ! 

When they catch the smile that slips 

For a greeting from her Mps, 
Then her sons and daughters love her 

To her dainty finger tips. 



66 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

Though but scanty be her fields, 
Yet a broader sway she wields, 

Reaching out from sea to prairie, 
In the children that she yields. 
Aye, a very queen is she, 
As the dullest eye may see, 

And her loftiest dominion 
In our loyal hearts shall be. 

Nor, forsooth, shall we confess, 
That we cherish her the less, 

If we turn us to her sisters 
And the plenty they possess. 
Nay, our love shall not abate, 
For our hearts are consecrate 

To the faith that gave her freedom 
And the hope that made her great. 

Here we hail the happy age 
Blazoned on Rhode Island's page; 

Like a beacon-flame to guide us 
Be that ancient heritage ! 
Though the years course o'er us fast. 
Yet the sweet and sturdy past '^ 

In our memories shall linger, 
Like an echo to the last. 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 67 

* Hs * Hi * 

This fair city, wondrous made, 

As by miracle uplaid, 
With its lofty domes and towers, 

As by miracle will fade. 

And its waves will no more gleam, 

And its shining walls will seem 
Like the bright and hallowed glory 

Of a well-remembered dream ; 

But though all its beauties wane. 

And our fond regrets be vain, 
Still the faith and hope that built it 

In the common State remain. 

Let her walls like these arise, 

Pure and white to greet the skies, 
And the sight shall stir the spirit, 

And be sweet unto the eyes. 

/flbusic : .^ejtcan :®anD. , 



Col. John C. Wyman. 

You are all aware that we Rhode Islanders, while 
we recognize that ours is the smallest State in the 
Union, being cognizant of how important a factor 
she has always been in our country's history, can 
but feel an honorable pride in recalling and re- 
viewing her past record, and that we claim for her a 
prominent position in this marvel of the nineteenth 
century, the World's Columbian Exposition. 

You know we have a game bird which has a na- 
tional and, I may say, an international reputation. 
The Rhode Island turkey is known and approved 
everywhere, but while superior to all other turkeys 
in flavor, it is about the same in formation, and is 
not all breast. You have already had Rhode Island 
served you till all the best, I fear, has been distrib- 
uted, and you must bear with and excuse me if, in 
the preparation of the dish I have to furnish, you 
now and then discover a familiar chestnut. 

I have attended several of these ceremonial occa- 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 69 

sions known as State Days, and have observed that 
it is almost invariably claimed by the State com- 
memorating, that she was the first in the Union, 
that she had larger resources (undeveloped in some 
instances), was of more importance to the Union 
than any other, and that but for her possibly there 
might never have been a Union, certainly never 
one comparing with the one we have in extent, in- 
telligence and influence. Now all this is as true 
of Rhode Island as it is of the other States who 
have claimed it, and it is not necessary for me, 
familiar as you are with her past history, to spend 
any time in establishing her right to be regarded 
as worthy to rank with any of the thirteen original 
States, who declared, defended and demonstrated 
their right to an independent form of government. 

But in the presence of this magnificent exhibi- 
tion, where Genius has taken its highest flight and 
man has shown himself capable of greater and 
grander achievements than have ever been accom- 
plished before, since the first morning" in Eden, 
Rhode Islanders may well be proud to- say, " It was 
the founder of their State who first asserted and 
established the right of absolute religious liberty," 
and here let me state a very interesting fact. 

The Convention first called by the three Rhode 
Island Colonies to take steps to secure a Charter 



70 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

met at Aquidnick. It was then agreed to apply to 
England for a Charter and Roger Williams was 
duly elected to secure the same, on September 19th, 
1643. 

The call for the World's Parliament of Religions 
was issued and the Committee organized September 
19th, 1893, just two hundred and fifty years later. 
Now mark this : On the arch over the right column 
of the Peristyle are these words, studiously selected, 
" Toleration in Religion the best fruit of the last 
four Centuries." 

We are to-day precisely where Roger Williams 
was two hundred and fifty years ago when he ad- 
vocated and illustrated this same sentiment. What 
grander claim could we make to royal recognition 
than to have furnished such a man ?•*' 

While it may be that none of us may enter 
the Promised Land, which will unquestionably be 
reached when all Sectarianism is abolished, and 
people come together on the broad platform of love 
for man and worship for God, — what changes will 
come to the world then, — and while we may not see 
those changes, while we may not ourselves be ben- 
efited by them, our duty is none the less obligatory 
to strive for that religious tolerance which will 
produce them. Moses sought and struggled during 
forty years, strengthened' and sustained by the hope 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 71 

of entering the Land of Promise, and after all he 
was permitted only to stand upon the top of Pisgah 
and look upon what he could neither enter nor 
enjoy. We must be content to stand on a moral 
Pisgah and as we catch glimpses of a better time 
which is sure to come, " learn to labor and to wait." 

I believe that this is the dawn of a New Era, 
and if there shall be two, or one hundred years 
hence another World's Fair Exhibition, these great 
weapons of war, destruction, and death, which in 
this one excite so much interest and admiration, 
will be looked upon not only with wonder and 
amazement, but with as much horror and hatred 
as we now look upon the instruments of torture 
employed by the Inquisition. It seems to me this 
great Exposition is hastening the day when we 
shall no longer have occasion for death-dealing 
weapons. All the nations have been represented 
here, a better knowledge of each other ha^ resulted, 
and if diflPerences and difficulties arise between 
them, arbitrators and not ''grim visaged war" will 
amicably arrange and settle them. 

Much has been said of the rapid and wonderful 
material development of this Western World dur- 
ing the past two hundred years, but the time is 
coming and now is when a wiser appreciation of 
what tends to highest development of the race will 



72 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

obtain and men will begin to understand the spir- 
itual significance of this great exhibit of the world's 
life ; then people will begin to realize that there is 
something to do besides increase armies and navies 
or accumulate vast hoards of wealth to be squan- 
dered in selfish indulgence. We wonder at and 
admire Columbus as he sailed over a great and 
unknown ocean. We stand to-day as Columbus 
stood upon the deck of his ship, but we are gazing 
over a greater and more unknown ocean, the ocean 
of the world's moral future. 

The great question of labor and capital ; how to 
harmonize relations now so discordant and antag- 
onistic ; the question how best to equalize the con- 
ditions of the people of this earth ; the question 
whether the palace and the slum must ever be 
near neighbors ; these are the great issues that lie 
before us, and he who helps us to solve them is 
the true benefactor of his race even though he 
adds nothing to the material wealth of the country. 
I believe through this Exposition we are coming to 
a feeling of brotherhood such as we have never 
known before, and that we are going to get a better 
and clearer idea of religion than we have ever yet 
had. I believe we are going to find out with the 
great founder of our religion, that love for God 
must begin with love for man, and that there is no 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 73 

love for God until love for man has been developed, 
and when human hearts have learned this lesson, 
then 

"Waft, waft, ye winds, the story, 
And you, ye waters, roll. 
Till like a sea of glory 
It spreads from pole to pole." 

I feel sure tha,t the dawn of this day has begun, 
and we are already marching toward that glorious 
period of universal peace and brotherhood. 

"Then let us pray that come it may, 
As come it will for a' that. 
When sense and worth o'er a' the earth. 
Shall bear the gree, and a' that. 
For a' that, and a' that. 
It's coming yet, for a' that — 
When man to man, the warld o'er, 
Shall brothers be for a' that." 

/iRusic: Ibungarian ©rcbestra. 



10 



Hon. Thomas W. Palmer. 

President Palmer was not down upon the pro- 
gramme for an address, as his presence was a 
wholly unlooked for honor. Although his address 
was entirely impromptu, yet it was eloquent and 
deeply interesting. None of the daily papers gave 
an abstract of it, and it is now almost impossible 
to reproduce even a faint outline of it, and any 
attempt to re-present the brilliant flights of elo- 
quence, or restore the delicate conceits in which 
the address abounded, would be wholly futile. 
Among other things President Palmer said : On 
no former occasion has the National Commission 
attended a State celebration in a body, but has re- 
served this special honor for Rhode Island, because, 
first, of its admiration and respect for Governor 
Brown, who has borne himself with such dignity, 
and won from all such high esteem since his ar- 
rival a week ago ; and I personally, and the Com- 
mission as a body, desired to seize this opportunity 
to express by this official recognition our high re- 



EXERCISES AT MUSIC HALL 75 

gard for 3^our State, for your Governor, and for the 
distinguished party of ladies and gentlemen who 
honor the Fair by their presence this day. 

In order to emphasize this honor, which we desire 
to confer, we have marched hither in a body, and 
brought with us two bands of music, the Hungarian 
Orchestra and Mexican National Band, which has 
been sent to Chicago by President Diaz to partici- 
pate in the exercises of Mexico Day, which occurred 
yesterday. This excellent musical organization of 
forty pieces we desire to place at the disposal of 
your Governor for the rest of the day and evening. 

We all honor Rhode Island, not only because of 
her manufactures, her cotton mills, her skill in 
fashioning silver and gold, and her clams, but also 
because of her history, replete with great deeds and 
great men. I am proud of her especially because 
of my own generous lineage. I am what might 
properly be called a genealogical mosaic : a lineal 
descendant of Roger Williams, born in New Hamp- 
shire, educated in Ohio, and settled in Michigan. 
I am proud of Rhode Island also because the man 
who has done so much to make this great Colum- 
bian Exposition a success, a man of such wonderful 
executive ability, the Director Geheral, George R. 
Davis, is a son of Rhode Island, and rendered heroic 
service during the Civil War as an officer from that 



76 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

State. I am proud of Rhode Island, moreover, 
because of her heroes . of the past, of Roger Wil- 
liams, of General Nathanael Greene, of Perry, of 
Burnside. 

In conclusion, may I express the hope that the 
noble lessons taught b}^ this Exposition may not 
perish, and that this great people will rise up and 
demand the preservation, at least, of the Court of 
Honor, that it may make this city the central city 
of the continent, to which all lovers of humanity 
can make pilgrimages and lay their offerings before 
the shrine of art. 

At the close of President Palmer's eloquent ad- 
dress, the Newport Artillery rose in a body and 
gave three cheers for President Palmer and the 
National Commission. Not to be outdone, the 
Brown University Alumni present gave three 
Brown cheers, followed by a rah ! rah ! rah ! 



IV, Dress Parade 



After the exercises in Music Hall, Col. Alvin A. 
Barker tendered a complimentary Dress Parade to 
His Excellency, Governor D, Russell Brown, on 
the Administration Plaza. The Newport Artillery 
paraded as a battalion of three companies, com- 
manded respectively by Major George C. Shaw, 
Lieut. John D, Richardson and Capt. Herbert 
Bliss. The Newport Band, under the command 
of Thomas W. Henry, furnished the music and at- 
tracted much attention by their beautiful white 
uniform, while the military marches rendered 
elicited much applause. The Drum Major, Mr, 
Louis Shanteler, gained favorable comment by the 
skilful manner in which he conducted the evolu- 
tions of the band. 

His Excellency was accompanied by his General 
and Personal StaflP and all the members of the 
official party, and the Parade attracted immense 
crowds from every direction, so that scarcely space 
could be found in which to go through the -marches 



78 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

and counter-marches. The battalion, under the 
skilful handling of Colonel Barker and Adjutant 
Stevens, acquitted itself, however, in a most cred- 
itable manner. The movements of the companies 
and the exercises in the manual of arms were per- 
formed with a promptness and precision that called 
forth general admiration. His Excellency, Gov- 
ernor Brown, was especially pleased and took oc- 
casion to compliment the officers and men in 
words of highest praise. After the parade the Ar- 
tillery Company marched to the Rhode Island 
Building, stacked arms, posted guard and waited 
for the services demanded of them in the evening. 



V. EVENING RECEPTION 



In the evening from saven to ten a reception was 
given by the Rhode Island Board of World's Fair 
Managers to His Excellency, D. Russell Brown, 
Governor of Rhode Island. Governor and Mrs. 
Brown were assisted in receiving by the ladies 
connected with the Commission. Guards from the 
Newport Artillery were stationed in and about the 
building, while the building and the lawn were 
elaborately decorated, and in most exquisite taste. 
The chief of the Fair decorations said that the 
building, with its many vari-colored lights, Jap- 
anese lanterns, flags, bunting, palms, exotics, gar- 
lands of flowers of all hues, and wreaths of rich 
foliage, could not be rivalled by any reception 
thus far given. A large pavilion had ^been pitched 
upon the rear lawn, in which refreshments were 
served. Many thousand ladies and gentlemen from 
Rhode Island were present during the evening, and 
a large number of distinguished officials of Chi- 
cago, and others connected with the Fair, called 
to pay their respects to Governor and Mrs. Brown. 



80 RHODE ISLAND DAY 

Among others were the Executive Commissioners 
from Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massa- 
chusetts, New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Mis- 
souri, South Dakota, Washington, Indiana, Mich- 
igan, Illinois, and Ohio. The toilets of the ladies 
were very attractive and many of them superb, that 
of Mrs. Gov. Brown attracting special attention by 
its richness and beauty. The theme of the evening 
was the grand success of the day, and specially 
the exercises in Music Hall. The genial John C. 
Wyman, Executive Commissioner, was highly com- 
plimented by all for his tact and administrative skill 
and never-failing good nature, while the smoothness 
in the execution of the day's programme was cred- 
ited by unanimous consent to the careful prepara- 
tion and foresight of the Committee on Ceremonies 
under Chairman John P. Sanborn. The Newport 
Band was stationed upon the lawn in front of the 
building and during the evening gave a concert 
made up of classical pieces and patriotic airs which 
added much to the pleasure of the occasion. It 
was nearly midnight when the gay festivities were 
brought to a close. 

Thus ended a day pronounced by all present a 
magnificent success from beginning to close, and by 
the Chicago press declared to be the most success- 
ful celebration held thus far on any State Day. 



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